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Carnegie Mellon Resists FBI Tapping Requirement
roach2002 writes "Carnegie Mellon University is fighting back against a requirement that taps on campus internet access must be quickly obtainable. The technology that would allow the FBI to monitor internet access, after a court order, "at the flip of a switch" would cost at least $450 per student. MIT is also covering the story." From the article: "'The Department of Justice wants 24/7 access, whenever they need it, and they want remote access. We find that too extremely burdensome in terms of money, staff, and technology,' said Maureen McFalls, Director of Government Relations for Carnegie Mellon and the coordinator of Carnegie Mellon's response to this issue. According to an ACE press release, the cost to universities could be upwards of $7 billion, or at least $450 extra on each student's tuition bill."
So what's the price for non-compliance? Never seen any mention of that.
I don't even have that kind of remote access to the boxes I administer (and I work in the wireless communications industry)! The best I have is SSLdump, and If I want to run TCPdump on a server (from home), I have to dump to a local disk, then tar zcf it, then scp/rcync back to my home PC (servers are gigE, and I'm 3Mbit cable).
Why can't the universities say, "Sure, just tell us when you're going to buy us the equipment"?
BBH
Somehow I don't think they're looking for general internet access. It seems more likely they want complete access to every student/faculty/department/etc's machine, you know - just in case.
I only need the Preview button when I haven't used the Preview button.
Terrorism seems to be any act against the U.S. Government, half the population already disagrees with the policy of that government.
Why should they be allowed to tap into the intellectual centres of their country?
Universities are the places where revolution has historically started, curtailing student influence merely stops one of the free checks and balances on the system.
What happens to the FBI request for fast access when the students begin using encryption?
You think they want access to ensure national security?
-or-
some other reason. hmmm... Feds want to snoop into students computers/data traffic. To find budding terrorists? or perhaps p2p traffic?
Hmmm... didn't Attorney General just a few weeks ago state one of their significant goals is enforcement of intellectual property law?
seems feds are a bit lost from the path.
clearly itemize the "FBI Surveilance Surcharge" on the tuition, and see how quickly the outrage happens.
Some of those computers are laptops that roam from wired connection to AP 1 to another AP in a different city, but still on the institution's network. Our example roaming gnome with laptop also has access to 47 different UNIX systems and a couple of Windows terminal servers, where his communications could originate (and there are 5000 other people who have access to the same systems.
Now, you are a central net admin. You now receive a subpoena requiring all traffic generated by user A on the network. Anywhere on the network.
Complying with that order sure as hell isn't as simple as "a linux box with two NICs could do this transparently." It requires a huge amount of infrastructure, especially since CALEA requires them to do this without notice to the user, so there's no running to his office and dropping another box in front of his, not to mention that you don't want to give the FBI all the traffic from those multiple-user UNIX systems and Windows terminal servers -- only the traffic this "person of interest" is generating.
All of these numbers are reasonably close to actual for my employer, the University of Minnesota, who I sure as hell do *not* speak for in this or any other post to /. It's not a joke, and it's not an exaggeration. The problem is that big, and that expensive.
-30-
...we thought it was funny when the FSB (former KGB) demanded ISPs install equipment
1 25102.asp
specifically to allow this kind of monitoring (in 1998)- I guess its not so funny now.
For background, check out
http://www.rferl.org/features/1998/08/f.ru.980820
or just search on "SORM-2".
The US is heading rapidly towards becoming a police state. It's as simple as that.
Other countries are no better --- for example the UK is a nanny state gone mad, and is rapidly turning into a police state too. New mandatory IDs, new CCTV everywhere, new 3-month detention without process, etc etc.
How we've allowed our politicians to do this to us I don't know. But something is going to have to change, or things will get very ugly.
"The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra
That's interesting, The Third Amendment (To the US Constitution, Bill of Rights) was specifically added to prevent the Quartering Act from recurring:
I wonder to what extent some of the modern attempts at increasing police powers can be likened to an affront on the third ammendment. By requiring built-in-surveillance everywhere, they are essentially making each citizen walk around with a monkey on their back and foot the bill for the government to spy on them in the same way the British made the colonists house and feed their own oppressors. I do not want soldiers or police or cameras or anything of the sort in my home, work place or educational institution. I want to live in peace and be left alone.
Personally, I would rather take my chances with someone trying to drop a plane on my head (relatively rare) than empower further government corruption (relatively common) and being forced to be host to it is just salt in the wounds.
I'm curious, is there ANY fight worth fighting? At what point does money become so important that you are willing to give up all your rights? Just because this is the society we live in does not mean it is the only society that is possible.
"at least $450 extra on each student's tuition bill."
Bullshit.
The equipment doesn't have to be purchased and installed every semester.
They had 10 years to do this, didn't say anything while the law has been on the books for that long and ocntinued to take moeny from the federal government. "It's inconvenient" won't fly. "Right to privacy" above that of any citizen who is in a home or office won't fly.
The law is the law and nothing was said for 10 years. Complaining about the cost won't change the law. What will their response be when questioned as to why they did nothing while taking Federal funding (ahem, money taken from my wallet and that of every other taxpayer)? They won't have anything to support their complaints. Personally, I went to the University of Illinois, home of the NCSA. What are they going to say, they can't figure out how to make this work efficiently? Pfff. The schools who are complaining about this don't comprehend they are telling the world their IT departments are worthless.
We're trying to figure out if it's even possible without unbelievable costs here at Davidson College, and the (some of) faculty is resisting like there's no tomorrow. We're trying to get the word out to students, but there's no voice for civil liberties yet. We already do next to nothing when we get C&Ds.
I know for a fact we're not CALEA-compliant today. And I'm trying to spread the word to create resistance.
(Oh, and The Davidsonian's front page headlines this week: "Student pulls knife at Warner," "Students robbed in satellite parking lot," and "Town makes plans for transit rail to Charlotte.")